El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has called on the critics of his country’s bitcoin strategy to apologize, as the nation’s portfolio is now in the green. Bukele claims that El Salvador has made more than $3 million in profit from its bitcoin holdings and has no intention of selling.
El Salvador made history in September 2021 when it became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. The move was part of Bukele’s vision to boost financial inclusion, attract foreign investment, and reduce remittance costs.
The country also purchased 550 bitcoins, worth about $25 million at the time, to distribute $30 worth of the cryptocurrency to every citizen who downloaded the government’s digital wallet, called Chivo.
However, the adoption of bitcoin faced several challenges, such as technical glitches, protests, legal disputes, and market volatility. The price of Bitcoin plunged on the day of the launch, causing El Salvador to incur losses on its investment.
Many critics, including economists, journalists, and politicians, slammed Bukele’s decision as reckless, irresponsible, and undemocratic. Some even predicted that the experiment would fail and harm the country’s economy.
Bukele, however, remained defiant and confident in his bitcoin strategy. He continued to buy more bitcoins during the dips, increasing the country’s holdings to 1,120 bitcoins, worth about $50 million at the end of October 2021.
He also claimed that the Chivo wallet had more than 2.8 million users, representing more than 40% of the population.
In November 2021, the bitcoin price surged to a new all-time high of over $68,000, boosting the value of El Salvador’s portfolio to over $76 million. Bukele took to Twitter to announce the news and demanded an apology from the critics who wrote “hit pieces” against his country.
He said that El Salvador had made more than $3 million in profit from its bitcoin investment and had no plans to sell. He also compared his strategy to that of MicroStrategy, a business intelligence firm that has accumulated over 114,000 bitcoins worth over $7 billion as a treasury reserve asset.
Bukele argued that the critics should retract their statements, offer apologies, or at least acknowledge that El Salvador was now profitable, just as they reported that the country was losing money. He said that it was the responsible thing to do and that he would not let them get away with their misinformation.
